Jerry Brown, Stop Taking Climate Negotiating Points from Chevron

California Governor Jerry Brown has spent his last few weeks flying around the world and collecting accolades for his climate activism, but at home he’s been working to undercut a state bill to improve and extend California’s landmark climate law - by using Chevron’s wish list.

Yep. California’s climate leader is acting as the stenographer for Chevron.

AB 32, California’s landmark climate law, expires in 2020 and everyone says they want to extend it - but some are more sincere than others. This spring, Latham and Watkins, the expensive law firm working for Western States Petroleum Association (Chevron and its cohorts) put together its wish list for cap and trade reform: end the program by 2030, keep the allowances cheap at $12-50/ton (and even continue to give away some free allowances), bar local air districts from creating greenhouse gas regulations for local air quality tougher than California state regulations, and make it easier for polluters to buy offsets out of state. Oh, and they’d include detailed monitoring of toxins at refineries and other large polluters so that (mostly poor minority) people would know just how much deadly crap they breathe in every day.

Meanwhile, state senate Pro Tem Kevin DeLeon and state senator Bob Wieckowski introduced SB 775 to bring real reform to carbon pricing: require California refineries to clean up their pollution at home, end the scandalous practice of buying carbon offsets far offshore, set a more realistic market for carbon (up to $120/ton), no free allowances to pollute, and a climate dividend for every California resident.

So what does climate hero Gov. Jerry Brown do? He ignores SB 775 and the science behind it, refuses to talk with its authors, and circulates his own proposals: end the program by 2030, keep the allowances cheap at $12-63/ton (and even continue to give away some free allowances), bar local air districts from creating greenhouse gas regulations for local air quality tougher than California state regulations, and make it easier for polluters to buy offsets out of state. Oh, and he includes detailed monitoring of toxins at refineries and other large polluters so that (mostly poor minority) people would know just how much deadly crap they breathe in every day.

Let’s build the 21st Century economy on renewable, clean energy and infrastructure that is smart and is tied in with systems that integrate jobs, renewable energy, resource use, resourceful reducing and recycling waste. There are many alternatives to petroleum-based products, and it’s vital to turn to these, to reduce our extraction and use of fossil fuels, and to make single-use plastics obsolete or compostable.